Modeling Language for Buildings and Building Products, Nodelt

8/7/2019 Modeling Language for Buildings and Building Products, Nodelt

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Report of the research project:MODELING LANGUAGEFOR BUILDINGS AND BUILDING PRODUCTS,NODEIT

Part of the :Building Node II research project.

Carried out by :

OBOM researchgroup,Chair of Integration of Constructions,Faculty of Architecture ,Delft University of Technology.Prof. Ir. J . Brouwer.Ir. J. Kapteijns.Ing . J . Bleeker.

Author:J .P. den Hartog: Student Assistant - Researcher atOBOM .

Copyright 1995 - 1997 by OBOM researchgroup,TU Delft.ISBN: 90-5269-243-2


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ABSTRACT.

The NodelT project is a part of the Building Noderesearch project carried out by the OBOMresearchgroup . The research 's aim is to improve theuse of prefabricated building products , and toimprove the joints between products . The NodelTproject was set up to develop computer softwarethat supports architects in selecting buildingproducts for their design. It offers productmanufacturers a preview of the environment theirproducts could be applied in . This report is toindicate the project's progression since the lastreport: NodelT report 2 published by OBOM )1 .

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CONTENTS

PageIntroduction. 71 The OBOM Protocol. 911 . Introduction to the protocol. 91.2. Four levels of detail. 91.3. Geometrie information. 101.4. Specification of performance. 111.4.1. Traversing of specifications. 121.4.2. Specifications of products. 131.5. Context in a design. 132. The 'Selection Engine Technology' 152.1. Introduction to the SET. 152 .2. Dimension compare. 152.2. 1. Traversing objects in dimension compare. 162.3. Specification compare. 162.4. Knowledge based selection and context

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3. Modelling Buildings and Products. 183.1. Introduction to modelling. 183.2 . Designing a building using the protocol. 183.3 . Modelling a product using the protocol 203.3.1 . Introduction. 203.3.2. Differences in aggregation. 213 .3.3 . Tree traversal. 224. Conclusions. 23Appendix A: NodelT Help Topics. 25Appendix B: Used performance specificationattributes. 37References. 42

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INTRODUCTION.

NodelT is a project from the OBOM researchgroup.It's aim is to build a prototype utility which helps anarchitect in using prefabricated building products inhis design . Today many architects like the idea ofbuilding with products. The two mayor conditions forusing prefabricated products are,1). up-to-date information on all available products.2). direct feedback on what problems need to besolved once a product is chosen.ad 1) . A designer wants graphical information ofwhat a certain combination of products will look like,especially the joints. Furthermore alphanumericinformation is requested on what a product canperform in terms of heat-insulation, noise-reduction ,load-bearing etc. From an expert-system dealingwith products, it is expected to visualise theproduct, represent the performance of products andrepresents edges of products.ad 2). As far as the design feedback, an expertsystem will provide in a visualisation of thecomposition so far, representation of theperformance levels of the design and representationof the joints between products.Another useful feature of an expert system wouldbe the ability to search for a product in a productdatabase. By making explicit to the program whatkind of performance one wants for a piece of abuilding and also specifying where one wants this , arange of products that could fit the need of thebuilding are offered. A closer matching routinecalculates more precise how much the requirementsfor the part of the building and a selected productmatch.The OBOM researchgroup developed a prototypefor such an expert-system called 'NodeiT'. Usingthe OBOM protocol the system models and

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materialises a design. The building to be design edis set up as a collection ol boxes. These box es areabstraction ol chambers, walls, windows , doors andsheets ol a material. The trick is to start with a setol 'ROOM'-objects and work the way down thedetailed level. On the 'LAYER' level all objectsrepresent sheets or proliles. Objects on the'LAYER', 'SECTOR' and also on the 'GROUP' levelcan be replaced by building products . It wil! beobvious that replacement ol a GROUP-objectrequires a much higher level a prelabrication ol theproduct and is much more difficult to calculate thanreplacement of a LAYER-object.NodelT uses an external 'AutoCAD' or 'VRMLviewer ' for visualisation. The design is exported intoan drawing or vrml-world. This provides thedesigner with visual leedback on the design .


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Picture 1: Room Level

Picture 2: Group Level

Picture 3: Sector Level

Picture 4: Layer Level

1. THE OBOM PROTOCOL.

1. 1. Introduction to the protocol.The OBOM protocol is a way to describe

buildings . Not as a collection of walls, windows ,doors with dimensions al ready fixed by the drawing,but as a set of statements of what to put where .Designing with the protocol , one specifies whatload-bearing performance a wall should have ratherthan dimensioning the wall the instant it enters thedesign.

The protocol has been developed during theBuilding Node 1 research and has been made moreexplicit in the NodelT project. At this point theprotocol is applied to two different fields: the designof buildings to be, and the building materialindustry. The protocol is divided into two types ofinformation. The first type is the geometricalinformation. In it the dimensions, position,occurrence and status of the product ar e stated.Th e second type is the coll ection of (material)properties. The protocol has the same descriptorsfor both building and building products . Because ofthis dual use of the protocol, the information onboth buildings and building products is stored in thesame format. It 's relatively easy to compare a partof a building with a prefabricated building products.In other words, the search engine is able to findbui lding products which are a precise fit for a part ofthe building.1.2. Four Levels

With the OBOM protocol the design of abuilding and the description of a product is split upinto four levels. These are 'ROOM' - 'GROUP' -'SECTOR' - 'LAYER' (picture 1-4). The 'ROOM'leve l being the most abstract, the 'LAYER'-levelbei ng the most detailed. The designer starts withcreat ing a set of ROOM's. These rooms areorthog onal boxes and can rep resent an actual room

the building . The proporti ons the boxes are free

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Rlil R1G4=O ilI I II I II I II I II I II I II I I:-4-1 R1Gl R1G2I I II I II I II I II I II R1G3 I ILJ r---- -'-i- -- -- t- jL _____ ___ __Picture 5: Room to Groupconversion

W - : d I I I____ J I II II IPicture 6: Group to Sectorconvers;on

Picture 7: Sector to Layerconversion

Picture 8: CCS and LAS

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for the designer to manipulate .Once the dimensions are correct , the rooms aresuccessively translated into multiple GROUP's. Agroup represents a wallor a part of a wall. Theposition and dimensions of the groups correspondswith the faces of the parent-room. Each of the sixfaces of the box representing the room may beturned into a wall or floor. Only the width of the wallor floor must be inserted by the designer. Theposition of the new groups can be aligned toassume the inside, centre or the outside of theboundary (picture 5) .The group on its turn will be converted into multipleSECTOR's. Sectors represent open or closed partsof a wall or floor. The open sectors can represent awindow, door, pipe conduct, stair opening or anyhole in a wall (picture 6) .The open and closed sectors can be divided intosheets . These sheets are called LAYER's . The layeris the most detailed descriptor of the protocol. Alayer can represent a sheet of bricks, concrete ,wood etc . They can also be thought of as radiators ,cabinets etc. (picture 7) .The four different levels result in the followingdescriptors . A box described as a room can act asan empty space or a filled space . The boxes on thegroup-Ievel can act as wall or floor. The sector-leveldistinguishes open and closed parts . The openparts being windows , doors etc. The closed partsare parapets, walls etc. The layer-Ievel also hasopen and closed parts . The open parts are seen asthe cavity between two layers of material.1.3. Geometrie Information.

In order to locate each object in the buildingand visualise it accordingly, the objects position anddimensions are stored in the building-database .The position consists of an 'insertion point' and a'Iocal axis system' (LAS picture 8) . The insertionpoint indicates the origin of the Las . The Las isused to place an object in a Cartesian Co-ordinate


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Picture 9: Specifications

System (CCS). The dimensions consist of an x, yand z value . The values form a boundary box orenvelope . Wh en visualising the abstract buildingthis box is drawn in AutoCAD . It will be clear that aselected product must fit in this box in order to be avalid replacement of this object.Products are often offered in a range of dimensions .This range usually start at a minimum length andstepwise increases to the maximum length. Thisinformation (min . - step - max.) is stored in theproduct-database and can be given for any of thethree axis (x,y,x) . With this option, multiple productsare represented by one entry in the database .When a product, for example, a prefabricatedfacade has a window, the sill-height of the windowwil I of en vary from e.g. 900, 1000, 1100 to 1200mmo One product out of a range of dimensions hasagain four different occurrences. Inorder to keepthe product-database as small as possible, this hasled to a range in the insertion point of an object.Child objects can have a range of insertion pointsand dimensions. This method provides thepossibility of placing a child object on differentpositions within the parent object.1.4. Specification of performance.

Each object on one of the four levels ofdetail has attributes describing the object requestedperformance . This performance of an buildingobject is requested by the designer. A part of thebuilding must meet certain standards, eitherdictated by law, physics, the designer or theprincipal. This performance is attached to theobjects in the form of attributes which are cal led'performance specifications' (picture 9). Thespecifications are divided into five parts. Theseparts offer valuable information on all parts inbuilding . Not only are the specifications used forselecting products, they can also be used by thirdparty developers to provide their noise-, heat- anddaylight-calculus utilities with data. The five

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different types of specifications are the result of theBuilding Node 1 research , as there were ,Specifications of :1). 'BEARING' performance (e.g . the maximumpressure of a material).2) . 'DIVIDING' performance (e.g . insulation value) .3). 'CONNECTING' performance (e.g . objectconneets at 'SECTOR' level) .4). 'FINISHING ' performance (e .g. Ral code 1040) .5) . 'SUPPLYING' performance (e.g. contains pipes ,ducts).With these specifications it's possible to determinejust which product should be applied where. A fulllist of the specifications can be found in appendixB.

1.4.1. Traversing of specifications.The specifications bound to a object on

room-level have astrong relation with thespecification of the group-Ievel objects that arecreated from that room-level object. The relationdepends on e.g . the thickness and material of thegroup-object. Also, when a room 's dimension ismodified in a later stage , the insulation-values forthe walls will also change. This makes absolutevalues hard to use . Furthermore, calculating theinsulation value for a window is only possible whenall windows in the room are defined and won't bechanged. These modifications work consistent if aformula is constructed for each specification oneach part of the building . Then is possible tochange part of the design without affecting the restof the building. The parameters used in this formulamust be weil chosen . The first constraint is that onlyinformation from the building-database orspecifications with absolute values (e .g. Young 's


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I_ .---t-.. - + - . - . L , , ~ I I I

Picture 10: produets in context

modulus) may be used for the parameters in theformula. the second constraint is that formulas maynot significantly change if the geometry orspecifications of the parent-object are changed. Theway in which the specifications travel from level tolevel is fairly complicated and the formulas usedmust be executed with every action. This requiresfurther research .1.4.2. Specificatians af Praducts.

Products can of en be purchased in manydifferent instances. To model several instances of aproducts in one object, the protocol should providea range or domain in dimensions and specs . Thecorrelation between values from different domainsshould also be modelled . So when the dimension ofan product changes, so will it's heat-insulationvalue. Providing this range in the specifications inthe protocol would be, in this early stage ofdevelopment , premature. Much research has to bedone of how the different instances re late to theirperformance.The solution used for NodelT 2 program is to modelevery instance of a product as a separate object(with fixed dimensions en specs) . In this way forevery product there is a database equivalent. Thedatabase's Structured Ouery Language (SOL) isused for selecting only those products withdimensions and specs between a given range .1.5. Context in a design.

Under the context of an object the protocoldefines the environment in which (or the conditionsunder which) an object or product is applied . Thecontext of an object is modelled by two Booleanattributes. Objects can be used to create anexterior-interior (IE) separation or an interiorinterior (11) separation. This is represented by the IE/ II attribute . Objects can also be used to definespace (space enclosure, SE) or only occupy it(space occupier, SOl . This property is set by the SE/ SO attribute. The position is the third attribute

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specilying an object 's context. The position(horizontal, vertical or diagonal) is read Irom theobject's geometrie model inlormation . For thepurpose ol connecting product's , a model ol theedge is stored in the product database . Thisabstract edge is used to check il produets litamongst their neighbour products. For moreinlormation on this subject , reler to relerenee 2(picture 10).


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ProductDatabase1-2 -

Picture 11 : Data Flow

Bu;ld ingDa tabaseRG-

\-------r - X ~ ,10

r * ' - - - - - - -

Picture 12: Dimensions Compared

2. SELECT/ON ENG/NE TECHNOLOGY (SET).2. 1. /ntroduction to the SET.The 'Selection Engine' (SET) is used to search theproduct - database for building products that meetcertain criteria . These criteria consist of a vastamount of information . In order to search theproduct database in a consistent order, the SET isdivided into three comparison routines (picture 11).The 'Dimension Compare ' and the 'SpecificationCompare ' are already implemented in the SET. The'Context Compare' is the subject of the graduationresearch of the author. Proposals on this researchcan be found in reference 2.2.2. Dimension Compare.

The object in the building database hasthree fixed dimensions . A product from the productdatabase has three dimension-ranges with a stepvalue. During a dimension compare, the dimensionsof the object in the building are compared to thoseof the selected product (picture 12). The X-, Y- andZ- dimension-values of the object have to be withinthe dimension-range of the product and occupy astep value.For certain products (e.g . concrete , paint , plaster) ,the exact occurrence is determined during theapplication in the building . The OBOM protocol callsthese products 'material ' (M-type) products. Thedimensions of these kinds of products are free in allthree directions and are only limited by the laws ofphysics. Wh en applying a M-type product , chancesof a positive 'dimension match ' are high .Some products are manufactured while one or twodirections in the dimensions can still be changed onsite . These products are called 'versatiie ' (V-type)products . The directions in dimension which cannotbe changed , are usually offered in a range ofvalues . The th ird type of product is the 'component'(O-type) product. These products are fixed in allthree dimensions but can be manufactured in arange of different dimensions .

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Picture 13: SpecificationsCompared.

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2.2.1. Traversing Objects in Dimension Compare.Some objects have one or more objects on a

lower level attached to them (e .g. a wall with twowindows). This is an example ol a 'parent-child'relation. When looking lo r a product to take theparent 's place , the product-database is searched lo ra product having two child-objects which lit thedescription. The dimensions and position ol each olthe windows are compared in the same way asdescribed earlier. The same rule applies when thechild-object becomes a parent-object in its turn andhas one or more child-objects atlached to them . Thetree ol objects is traversed Irom the top object andeach object is compared to its product. It will beclear that this method demands a great deal olcalculation time and may even result in acomputation explode .2.3. Specification Compare.

From both the object in the building andobject in the product-database the data on the livespecilication subjects are given . At this point, thespecilications ol each 'ROOM'-object in thebuilding-database have to be manually input. Thespecilications ol a product are supplied by themanulacturer and are present in the product-database. When a product is compared to a objectin the building database, each specilicationatlribute ol the object is compared to thecorresponding attribute Irom the selected product(picture 13) . When a value lo r a specilicationatlribute is given lo r both product and buildingobject , the ratio between the values is compared toan allowance . The values in product and buildingmay, in this way, differ a lew percents withoutleading to the rejection ol the product. Thisallowance can be separately given lo r each ol thespecilication attributes.


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2.4. Knowledge Based Selection and ContextCompare.This part ol the project is currently under

development. For a detailed report on the proposalson this subject , reler to relerence 2.

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3. MODELLING BUILDING AND PRODUCTS.3.1. Introduction to Modelling.

The OBOM protocol is developed to providea language for modelling buildings and products .The purpose of this model is twofold in thephilosophy of the OBOM . First of all, modelssimplify the information when the application ofproducts is governed by a CAAD system .Computers require weil defined chunks of data setup according to a predefined format. The OBOMprotocol provides a language for modellingbuildings. The second purpose of a model is to keepthe designer's at!ention to important tasks . Themayor part of the complex geometry andperformance information may be ignored by thedesigner and is handled by the computer. Whenmore detailed information is requested by the user,the system zooms in on the selected section andshows one product or joint.

3.2. Designing a Building using the Protocol.The design of a building start with thedefinition of a object on room-level. This objectrepresents a kitchen , living room etc. (picture 1).When the object is created , it's performance on allat!ributes is assumed to be zero . The designer mayadd desired light-levels, temperature , colour etc.These specifications are then connected to theobject and can be changed later on. Objects on theroom-level can 't be rotated around an axis , so onlythe insertion point of the object is required next tothe dimensions .The object is then converted into smaller objects onthe group-Ievel (picture 2). The child objects inherittwo dimensions and much specifications from theparent object. The unknown third dimension isrequested from the user. The position of the newgroups-objects can be aligned to assume the inside ,centre or the outside of the boundary. When theobjects on group-Ievel are defined , each of theseobjects can again be further detailed .


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Objects on the sector-level are used to definedifferent zones within a group-object. These sectorshave a specific use in the floors and walls (picture3). The sectors can be open, in which case they ac tas a zone for interaction with either the outside(window, door) or another room-object (door,passage) . Open sectors can span an entire floor orwall. Sectors can also be closed, to define a zonewith a different behaviour from the rest of the wall.For instance , a piece of high-pressure materialbetween two floor high holes may represent acolumn. For the definition of the sector-object aninsertion-point (x,z) and two dimensions (width,height) are required. Further a type of performancecan be given (act like a: door, window , air, etc.).The final conversion is dividing the objects onsector-level into multiple objects on the 'Iayer'-Ievel.These layers have different functions (picture 4).The functions can be just about everything, butNodelT has a few predefined ones (act like: brick ,insulation, steel, glass, etc.) . The facade of abuilding is usually build up out of several layers withseparate functions . The designer can stack up to sixlayers in a given sector. Each of these layers canhave its own set of performances like: waterrepellence, load-bearing . The total width of the sumof the layers may exceed the width of the parentsector. The system can also keep the two valuesequal. The width of the layers will be scaled to fitthe width of the sector.

Once the building is modelled , the user can startrefining the model. Objects can be deleted, addedseparately or moved . Specification attributes maybe edited to closer represent a specific material offun ction .

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Picture 14: General CADmodel ofa product.

Picture 15: NodelT model on level:Group

Picture 16: NodelT model on level:Sector

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3.3. Modelling Products using the PROTOCOL.3.3. 1. Introduction .

One of the intentions of the Suilding Noderesearch project, is to offer manufactures ofbuilding products a tooi for modelling their productsin a general format. This format may be used byseveral future CAAD systems . Remember that theOSOM protocol is not a 3D file-format like 'STEP' or'IGES'. It is a tooi for selecting the right product forthe right place .The physical appearance is not the mayor criteriafor choosing products. More important is the way inwhich products perform to certain demands. TheOSOM-protocol provides a language for modellingthe performance of product. The OSOM researchgroup has developed the tooi 'ProductSase'. Thistooi is used for modelling building products whichare then entered in the product database. Thelanguage is for 95 percent the same as thelanguage for modelling buildings .When modelling products, the first thing to bedetermined is on what level the product starts toreplace the objects in the building (see also section1.1). For example, a prefabricated facade start atthe 'group '-Ievel , a prefab . window starts at the'sector'-Ievel. The product as a whole is thensurrounded by a 'boundary-box ' (picture 14 & 15).This box is the parent object on the starting level.The three dimensions can have a minimal, maximaland step -value. For a product without a range indimensions, the min. and max. are kept the equal.Next step is to recognise elements in a productwhich occupy the level below the parent-object (e.g.windows in a facade) . The different elements aresurrounded by additional boxes (picture 16 & 17).Those boxes have minimal , maximal and step -values for dimension and position. This process isrepeated until all objects on the lowest (Iayer)-Ievelare modelled. Every object in a product has


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Picture 17: NodelT model on level:Layer

specifications. These performance-specificationsare, for example the insulation value, fire resistantperformance, transparency etc. The specificationsfor the object-classes currently implemented in'NodelT' are listed in appendix B.3.3. 2. Differences in Aggregation .

The product database uses the same objectclass for all three types of aggregation (paragraph2.2). In order to model the dimensions of aM-typeproduct, the step value in all three directions ischosen smal I (e.g. 1 mm). Th e minimum andmaximum dimension values are those which limitthe use ol the product. (it very hard to cast concretein a mould smaller 1OOmm. Concrete walls over 60m. long should be made up of two segments.)Products ol the V-type have one or two directionswhich may be sawed or cut . These directions havea small step value when modelling the product.When modelling O-type (0= object) products, stepvalu es are usually zero or something like 300 mm oItpossible to model a range ol prod ucts in one entrybut thi s is only recommended lor simple products.More complex products should be modelled one ata time.Building products are manulactured on many levelsol prelabrication . The OBOM -protocol provides alsofour levels of description lor products. Products canbe developed to act as a complete room (mobilehomes , Irame houses , toilet units). Wh en a roomob ject exists within the abstract building , having thesame specilications as the prelabricated productroom , the product could lullil a part ol the building.Th e product will have group -, sec tor- and layerobjects which will be applied in the design , thusre plac ing the design in furth er detail ol th at room. Apr efab ricated facade component has wind ows andd iffme nt layers of concrete and insulation whenapnlied in a building.

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3.3.3. Tree Trave rsal.The levels of the abstract description of the

OBOM Protocol are used in the search for build ingproducts. The user may apply a room- level bui ldingproduct in the design without ever having seen theexact physical appearance of the product (i .e. thethickness of the wall s, position of the door). The semay not matte r at the stage of the design processthe designer is going through .This is usually not the case with prefabricatedfacades. The position of the windows has mayorimportance here . The user will mode l a gro up-objectin the abstract building to have sector-objects . If aproduct is to match to an abstract model of this partof the facade , it has to have windows which cantake the same position as the windows in theabstract model.


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4. CONCLUSIONS.

The prototype program proved that replacingpar ts of an abstract building by building products isa promising development. The OBOM protocol canbe implemented in a expert system and used ir.both design and development.The four levels of detail provide a powerful way toabstract any building. Most parts of a bu ild ing fi teasily into some predefined description . However,there are parts with an ambiguous or double usethat ca nnot be described that easy. The envelopeca n circumscribe any object and lends itselfperfectly for automation .The performance specifications used in this projecta re not complete yet. Rather than working withspecific values , the researchers advise the useprocedures or functions for ca lculating a value for aspecification attribute at the moment it is requested .

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APPENDIX A: NODEIT HELP TOPICS.

Documentation on NodelT 2.0.A brief explanation of the forms and menu's.By J.P. den Hartog. Student-Assistant / Researcherat OBOM .Release date:

Copyright 1995 - 1997 by OBOM researchgroup ,TU Delft.

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CONTENTS.

Introduction .Form 1: Add an Object to Building .Form 2: Convert a Room into multiple Groups.Form 3: Convert a Group into multiple Sectors .Form 4: Convert a Sector into multiple Layers.Form 5: Match an abstract object and a product.Form 6: Export Building .Common buttons on the forms.

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INTRODUCTION.

NodelT is a program developed during the NodelT-project done at the OBOMresearchgroup . The research 's aim is to offer a utility helping and stimulatingarchitects in using prefabricated building products in their designs . By telling theprogram what kind of product you want and where you want it, it offers a rangeof products that could fit your needs . A closer matching routine calculates moreprecise how much your specification of a part of the building and a selectedproduct match. The building is set up as a collection of boxes . These boxes arean abstraction of rooms , walls , windows , doors and sheets of a material. Onestart with a set of 'ROOM'-objects and works down to the level of LAYER . On the'LAYER' level all objects represent sheets or profiles . Objects on the 'LAYER ' ,'SECTOR ' and also on the 'GROUP ' level can be replaced by (prefabricated)building products . It wil I be obvious that replacement of a GROUP-objectrequires a much higher level a prefabrication of the product and is much moredifficult to calculate than replacement of a LAYER-object.NodelT uses 'AutoCAD ' or 'VRML' as an visualization module , the building andthe products are exported into an drawing . The objects are drawn as solid boxeson their position and with their dimensions . These boxes can be moved andscaled to modify the design made in NodelT.

OBOMOpen Bouwen Ontwikkelings ModelFigure 1.

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FORM 1: ADD AN OBJECT TO BUILDING.

This is the form to start with. Use this form to define a new room in the abstractbuilding. If an object is added to the build ing with th is form , it will be defined onthe 'ROOM' level (future versions of NodelT will also support manually definitionof groups, sectors and layers). First the user has to pick an object to which thenew ROOM-object will be attached. The position and dimensions of the newroom are requested through six textboxes . The requested values are theinsertion point (X- , Y- and Z-value) and the dimensions (X- , Y- and Z-values) .The pictures on the right side of the form show a preview of what the new roomwill look like. Before clicking the CONVERT button , the specifications of theroom can be given. Behind the SPECS .. button is a form for the editing ofseveral specifications. The user can state strength , temperature , light etc. here .After finishing the specifications, click the OK button. This data will also besaved in the database. Clicking the CONVERT button will now calculate the dataof the new room and write this to the database on disk.

Figure2& 3.

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FORM 2: CONVERT A ROOM INTO MULTIPLE GROUPS.

This form converts a given ROOM-object into four walls and two floors on theGROUP-Ievel. In a ROOM-object the walls have only two dimensions, thisbecause they are represented by faces which have no thickness. The thicknessthat is added to these faces is cal ed the 'MATERlAL BAND' of each group andis requested through six textboxes. The material band for each wall and floorcan be put in separately. The two other dimensions (Iength and height) arecopied from the ROOM-object. If the material band of a wall is zero, nocorresponding GROUP-object is made. Plane-codes yz1, YZ2, XZ1 and XZ2 areused for the four walls, xy1 and xy2 are the roof and the floor. The user has thepossibility to align the walls and floors to the outside, center or inside of theedges of the ROOM-object, much like the align functions in a word processor.When all parameters are given, the CONVERT button can be pressed. The formwill add the new G ROU P-objects to the database . The results can be seen byexporting the building to AutoCAD or VRML.

Figure 4.

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FORM 3: CONVERT A GROUP INTO MUL TlPLE SECTORS.

With this form the user can create holes (Sectors) in the walls and floors(Groups) made with the previous form. To select the group to work with, firstselect the ROOM-object the group is attached to . Next select one of theGROUP-objects attached to the selected room. In this GROUP-object the newdoors and windows will be defined . After selecting the group-object, the frant ofthe object is projected in the preview picture on the right-hand side of the form .The user is now able to place openings in the GROUP-object with the contralson the form . The position and dimensions of a new open-SECTOR-object can beedited through the textboxes . The number of new objects is controlled throughthe 'ADD SECTOR' and 'DELETE SECTOR' buttons. For each new object aprofile can be given. A profile specifies how the object will act in the real world .When all windows, doors, etc. are in place, pressing the CONVERT bulton willcalculate the new objects on the SECTOR level and add these to the database .The selected group-object is translated to an sector-object with identical positionand dimensions . The new open sector-object represent area's with different andspecific specification (in this solid object).

Figure 5.

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FORM 4: CONVERT A SECTOR INTO MULTIPLE LAYERS.

This form defining LAYER-objects in the SECTOR. The user selects a SECTORobject to work with . This is done by selecting a ROOM-object, a GROUP -objectand finaily a SECTOR-object. The top view of the chosen SECTOR-object isprojected in the preview picture.The user can then define up to six LAYER-objects . For each object a dimensioncan be specified. The profile specifies how the object will act in the real world . Aspecial specification is the empty space . This is used to represent cavitiesbetween layers. The preview picture shows the new objects as hatched boxes .The form supports relative and absolute conversion. The relative division scalesthe sum of the objects widths to the maximum of the SECTOR-object's width (=100%) . Working with relative conversion, the sum of widths of the LAYERobjects cannot be greater than the width of the converted sector. The absoluteconversion doesn 't scale the width-values , the LAYER-objects are as wide asthe value of the textbox in millimeters with a maximum width of three times theSECTOR-object's width .

Figure 6.

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FORM 5: MATCH AN ABSTRACT OBJECT AND A PRODUCT.

This form offers the user the possibility to take an object on any level (ROOM,GROUP etc.) and search the product-database to see if a products exists thatcan take the object's place . After an object is chosen, the form lists the productsthat could give a positive match with that object. The user selects one of theproducts and presses the MATCH button. This will bring out a messageinforming the user how much the object and product match. The user mustdecide whether or not to apply the product in the design. The match isperformed on the different parts of the information. First the dimensions of theobject and product are compared. The context of object and product will then bematched. This part is not implemented yet. Finally the specifications areprocessed. These specification con sist of five parts. There are bearing, dividing,connecting, finishing and supplying specifications . A match percentage is givenfor each of the sub-specifications.If a product is applied to an object, the visualization of the building will not showthe 'box' of the object but (if possible) an CAD-drawing of the product. In thetrial version of NODEIT the author has made a product-database of a few(fictional) products. This can be used to try out the offer-demand principle.

Figure 7 &8.

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Sandwich Paneel 2Sandwich-spouw ElementTrimat-sandwichwand


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FORM 6: EXPORT BUILDING.

This form visualizes the abstract build ing in AutoCAD 12, AutoCAD 13 or in aVirtual Reality World . The user can export the object on each level separatelyor all together. The objects are drawn as empty boxes, the objects withproducts applied are show as detailed 3D-blocks (only in AutoCAD . Theexported drawing can also be used to select objects from the visualization . Ifthe designer wants to use the PICK FROM CAD button instead of thecomboboxes (which the author recommends) , exporting the building frequentlywill help seeing where each object is. Needed for visualizing are the target andthe levels.

Figure 9. 10 & 11 .

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COMMON BUTTONS ON THE FORMS.

BUTTON: I ~ I C K FR OM CAO.IThis button brings AutoCAD to the front, and asks the user to select an object towork with in the form . The program will then send the name of the selectedobject to the form where the pick from CADf-button was pressed. This buttonreplaces selection by means of the awkward Room :, Group: and Sector:Comboboxes used to select an object. To be able to use this button, the usermust first export the building to AutoCAD.BUTTON: I.s.PECS ...

This button should bring up the list of specifications belonging to the object inquestion . This only works with rooms for now. While much research is stillneeded for this part of the project, the function is disabled for the rest of thisbeta version .

BUTTON: I.c.LOSE.

This button closes the active form without converting or changing anyinformation .

BUTTON: ICONYERT.This button converts the selected object with use of the parameters on

the form to one or multiple objects on the level bel ow.

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APPENDIX B:USED PERFORMANCE SPECIFICATIONATTRIBUTES.

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"!Y0Munction Performance Unit.Bearing Bear yes/noStabil yes/noStift yes/noWeight kN

~ . D i v i d i n Q FireResistant minutesLiqhtLevel LuxNoiseLevel dBTemperatu re Celsius

3.Connectinq ConnectsTo R/G/S/L4.Finishinq

Color code5.Suoolvinq

ContainsPioesAt R/n

GROUPFunction Performance Unit1.Bearing

Bear yes/noStabil yes/noStift yes/noMaxPressure N / mm2SpecificG ravity kN / m3Weight kN

2.DividingFireResistant minutesWin Percentage %Noise Insulation dBUvalueAverage m2' K / W

f3.Connecting ConnectsTo R/G/S/LConnectBehaviour DomlRes

f:l.FinishingColor codeTexture fine-course

~ . S u p p l y i n q ContainsPipesAt G/n

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SECTORrunctlOn Performance Unit1.Beanng I;jear yeslno:stabil yes/noStiff yes/noMaxPressure NI mm2SpecificGravity kN I m3Weight kN2.Dividing

Fi reResistant minutesLightThrough %Noiselnsulation dBUvalue m2' KI WDampDiffusionCoeff. m2/s3.Connecting ConnectsTo R/G/S/LConnectBehaviour Dom/Res4.Finishing Color codeTexture fine-course5.Supplying

ContainsPipesAt Sin

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LAYERFunction Performance Unit1.Bearing Bear yes/noStabil yes /noStiff yes /noMaxPressure N / mm2SpecificGravity kN / m3Weight kNYoungs ' modulus N / mm2

D i v i d i n g Fi reResistant minutesFireAble classLightThru %Noise I nsulation dBHeatExpansion % / KUvalue m2' K / WSpecificHeat J / (kg ' KlHeatConductionCoef. J / (m's'KlWaterintake volume %DamoDiffus ionCoef. m2 / s

C o n n e c t i n g ConnectsTo R/G/S/LConnectBehaviour DomlRes4.Finishina

Color cod eTexture fine -courseReflection %Absorotion %ScratchResistance Hv

5.SuoolvinaContainsPioesAt Lln

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REFERENCES.

1. Hartog, J .P. den, ResearchReport 1 BouwknoopII NodelT project , OBOM, Delft UT, march 1996.2. Hartog, J.P. den, Graduation ResearchProposai :Product next to Product, Delft UT, october 1996.3. Kapteijns, J., e.a., ResearchReport BouwKnoopI, OBOM, Delft UT, 1992.4. Microsoft Corporation , Access Manual; BuildingApplications, 1994.5. AUTODESK Inc., AutoLISP ProgrammersReference , 1992.


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Modeling Language for Buildings and Building Products, Nodelt

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